No Good Deed
by Violetsinthewood
Summary: Warlock, Athena, has been sent to a long-abandoned complex left over from the golden age. What was the building used for? Why was she sent there?
1. Chapter 1

Athena slipped, catching herself on a nearby rock as she gingerly tried to step her way down the ancient path in front of her. That anybody might have lived here previously was astounding to her though she could fondly remember many a story of human ingenuity-the will to survive. This even before the golden age. Still, atop a frozen mountain seemed extreme even to her. Luckily the view she was met with every step of the way was marvelous.

From the foothills, forests expanded out far beyond even her vision, seedling children of a world considered doomed before the traveller shed its light on such poor souls. They slept peacefully under a heavy blanket of snow brought down by a blizzard just days ago. In groves there stood structures as well, old and mostly nameless, overgrown and now without use. Not even the great neon signs which topped a handful of them still shone, their power sources destroyed in the collapse. These forests were peaceful as she understood it. The fallen has already picked them clean of anything remotely useful. There was no war to be fought, not for many miles and still the warlock had been ordered to keep her weapon hidden.

Step after step she walked, silently cursing the order not to travel on her sparrow. It would have been so much easier that way but Athena had to remain faithful if for no other reason than for her ghost, Minerva, having such an insistence on doing so. It had been bad enough that she couldn't simply land atop the mountain but that she would be forced to make the entirety of her pilgrimage on foot was torture. Was it better than being forcefully decommissioned from duty? Certainly. However, she was under no obligation to enjoy herself. In fact, she was quite sure that was the point.

Athena pulled the fleece guard covering her mouth down to make herself heard against the howling wind whipping its way past her.

"Minerva!"

For a second it seemed as though she was ignored but surely enough the little light materialized just inches in front of her face. The heads-up display which Athena had attempted to program into her snow goggles was a bust. She had made a note hours ago to modify it in the time she was being given.

"How much further?"

"10 minutes at your current pace. Less if you're quick about it."

"Thank-" the ghost faded, "...you."

She soldiered on through the cold, trying her hardest to remain unbothered though it had been getting to her for the past hour. Evidently, her coat wasn't thick enough and she was beginning to miss her armor. Her suffering through the weather made the sight of her destination that much more of a relief. She came to a stop in front of it, taking a moment to breathe.

The structure was exactly as the vanguard described it. Nestled in between several trees was the entrance to a large concrete threshold. The building itself appeared to have been built into the face of the mountain and was largely obscured from view. A window, not much taller than Athena stood beside the door but was clouded by the accumulation of frost on its inside and was impossible to see through. The door looked like one of the old sliding glass doors frequently seen in shops, giving question as to whether it would open after such a long period of neglect. Given that the warlock would be here for quite some time, she felt blessed that at the very least, none of the glass on the exterior was broken. What awaited on the inside was still a mystery but to solve it she would need to enter. She felt a bit hesitant.

"What are you waiting for?" She asked aloud to herself.

Balling up her fist, she approached the building. The rifts of snow piled themselves just a bit thicker around the door, forcing her to trudge, but really it was a minor inconvenience. Upon reaching the door, she was unsurprised to find that it was unwilling to open itself. It was at this point that it occurred to her that she may very well have to restore power on her own. She gave the door a sturdy tug from its side but it didn't budge. She tried again, then a third time, knocking herself down into the snow when her fingers slipped from its edge. This made her angry, prompting her to stand and slam her shoulder into the offending object. This was the exact right option. The door swung inward from a hinge in its corner and Athena tumbled into the threshold in a flurry of snow uplifted by her feet. She kicked the door closed and pushed herself up onto her knees.

The building wasn't much warmer than the mountainside but receiving respite from the biting winds outside made it seem that way. It was fairly dark but not impossible to see thanks to the dim light which permeated through the frosted glass. That was plenty for Athena to see the room around her. Ahead there was a reception desk topped with an old telephone and some books filled with actual paper instead of the electronic filing systems which marked the prime of the golden age. Perhaps this was simply an aesthetic choice though there was no way of knowing at face value. On the opposite side of the room there was a couch, split right in two from the center and visibly stained. It was hard to discern a color in the dark though it looked orange. The glass table ahead of it was shattered and some books and mugs sat in the pile of wreckage beneath it.

Athena stood and removed her backpack and face mask, also sliding her goggles onto her forehead. The best step, she assumed, would be to search the desk. Perhaps then she could figure out the purpose of this little room (beyond the obvious). The paper book was entitled "Guest list September 2050- May 2051" though it seemed much too thick for a book which only recorded names in a nine month period. Perhaps there was another reason? Seemed unlikely. Either way, she slipped the book into the waistband of her pants. The drawers were locked, requiring a key. Athena then turned her attention to the back of the room where an elevator door waited, closed.

Opening the elevator door was no small task, requiring all of her strength and a catalogue of every obscene word she knew just to get it to budge. After, she squeezed herself into the gap between door and wall then used her legs to push it the rest of the way. The elevator car was not on the other side though in a stroke of luck, the cables were still completely intact. Athena took a deep breath then seized the cable with both hands and rappelled down into the darkness.

Upon landing on the elevator car, it became apparent that entering the floor above would be no easy task. Though the next landing was only a few feet up- short enough that the warlock could simply step up- the door was firmly closed and unlike the one several stories above, Athena was on the wrong side to open it. She tried anyway but was unable to find grip on the door.

She mulled over a handful of ideas but none seemed particularly plausible. Climbing the cable would be difficult if not impossible and doing so would seem rather pointless for having come down in the first place. She could also try to enter the elevator car which presented its own mechanical issues, the least of which was that if the door below wasn't already open then she would be back to square one and trapped in an elevator car. The third was certainly implausible but for lack of a better idea, she figured she would give it a shot.

The method of her third idea was simple. She placed her hands on the sliding iron doors in the hopes of shocking it open. She knew the idea was ridiculous; After all, Athena had no concept of how most of these old machines were wired and there was the possibility that if the wires within had been fried in an electrical surge then they may not carry a current. Even that was uncertain. Still, she was willing to try. Athena focused her light and surged it through her fingers causing a bright flash of light which sent a storm of arcing electricity dancing across the surface of the door. The door slid open violently causing a clatter within its mechanism and a characteristic _ding_ sounded off from above. With the way clear, Athena stepped in.

The hallway was pitch black; It was the kind of dark the warlock had only seen in hive colonies. This place set a deep unease in the pit of her stomach which was compounded by her solitude. Though she considered it to be irrational, her experience in places like this caused her to feel as if she were being watched, making it difficult to even will herself to create a light. She feared that if she did, then perhaps she might reveal whatever it was that was watching her and she would have no choice but to fight back against it, unarmed.

All of these feelings culminated themselves into a horrified shriek from the girl's mouth when the elevator door behind her unexpectedly slammed itself closed again and caused her to reflexively jerk forward into an unseen table and roll onto the floor, panting. Her stomach hurt, a combination of anxiety and bruising from the encounter with her four-legged adversary. She gave herself a moment to recover then reached up and took hold of the table's edge, pulling herself to her feet. There was nothing here to be afraid of, or at least that was what she was telling herself. Athena removed her gloves, tucking them into the pockets of her coat, and held her palm open. A quiet buzz kicked up as little bolts of electricity wiggled their way into the open air above her hand and in moments there was a concentrated ball of energy which illuminated the area around her in a short radius. The light was a welcome comfort though getting a better look at the hallway all but negated it.

The place was decrepit at best. Granted, it was at this point more than a thousand years old. The complex was built in the early years of the golden age and most things from that era were built to last long but by all appearance, whatever architects had a hand in this floor's design hadn't gotten the memo. The table Athena had bumped into appeared to be made of steel or some similar alloy and was horribly rusted over (prompting her to silently thank the traveller that her physiology made her immune to tetanus), it also bore mysterious stains and jagged holes in the center which could have been age or a puncture. The walls, seemingly made of plaster, were cracked in large spiderweb formations and had some disgusting water damage. Icicles formed at the corners of some of these indicating that wherever this water was coming from, the source was still active. There was a small hope that perhaps this meant she would have access to running water.

At this time, Athena became acutely aware that her breath was visible in the cold air. Instinctively, she reached to pull up her face mask but she had made the mistake of leaving it tucked into her pack back at the top of the shaft. She then remembered that this meant she no longer had a knife either. She wondered if it was worth trying to climb back to retrieve it but she at least knew it wasn't going anywhere and decided against it.

She figured the best way to regain access to the pack was to restore power. She was unsure of exactly how to do this though she seemed to remember receiving an instruction to look for it in the basement. Athena could only hope that this floor and the one below were connected by stairs, otherwise it was unlikely she would be unable to get any of the lights up and running.

Looking at the passing doors, very few of them made any sense. One was a classroom, another claimed to house a pool though the window was frozen over and completely opaque. The pool room unsurprisingly took up a great deal of wall space. Near the end of the hallway was a door labelled "Utilities". Bingo.

The door was locked but thanks to the age of the lock and the sheer strength of her push, she was able to break through with ease. Doing so allowed her into a small and dingy closet. On either side there were shelves housing what used to be bottles of cleaning products, several of which had been eaten away by their contents- the price of the push for biodegradable plastics in the early 21st century. There were also tools for using them like mops and a broom, some gloves, and a jumpsuit. On the far side was exactly what she was looking for: A circuit breaker and a map detailing the flow of power in the system. The map was utter gibberish to her but the breaker was a godsend.

She immediately set to work opening it and flipping various switches. Each was labelled by floor with a master switch at the bottom conveniently labelled 'master'. When she finally reached it and flipped it off then on, she could hear a faint whine coming from within but the lights remained off. Was power restored? Perhaps the water damage in this section was interfering with the lights. She prayed that this was the case.

As she turned to exit the room, she snatched the jumpsuit from its spot on the shelf and began to consider a number of things. Firstly, the map was gibberish but what she could tell for certain was that it made mention of only one basement. If it was this floor, then the floor below went unlabelled. An odd choice if that map was important for maintenance. Or, perfectly innocuous if she simply wasn't in the basement. She intended to check the elevator upon entering. Secondly, if she had failed to restore power then she would either have to improvise for survival- an option which she believed would involve avoiding showers and nudity- or she would have to keep searching for some sort of generator and restore power manually. Both sounded rather unpleasant as the former was disgusting and inconvenient while the latter involved a strip search of the entire complex and/or a trip back outside. Thirdly, she was about to discover whether the elevator was back online. Athena wasn't certain her body could handle climbing a rope up an uncertain number of stories.

At the elevator door, Athena whispered a prayer and tentatively pressed the button to call the elevator. Once again the ding sounded and the doors slid open to reveal the elevator car. She thanked her lucky stars and stepped inside. She turned to face the buttons feeling rather triumphant and pressed the one labelled "Lobby" third from the top. She intended to discover what awaited at the top but first she would need to retrieve her pack and then find a place to settle in. As of yet there was no indication that the central heating was on so she assumed that would also be a problem. Either way, she could claim the accomplishment of restoring power in the first place and was grateful. Shortly after the button was pressed, the door closed and she could feel the elevator's motion towards the top.

It was only a collection of seconds before she was able to step back out into the lobby, pleased to find that the overhead lights were still in working order and now illuminated the room. Additionally, a holographic computer screen was projecting up from the desk, open to a login screen requiring a password. Something to tinker with once given the chance. There was, however, one thing missing: the pack. Perhaps Minerva had retrieved it? Hard to say for certain but the little light was anal about many things so it wasn't unreasonable to conclude that leaving behind a bag of important resources was enough of an irritation to provoke action. She would be able to ask if the ghost was willing to speak with her for more than a second. Either way, Athena returned to the elevator and scanned the buttons.

The top button was labelled "Lounge" but there was also a button three floors down which bore the name "Lodgings". This was her choice. The door closed and the elevator carried her downward.

When the doors opened again, it was onto a hallway beautifully decorated with red and gold carpets and lit by warm light. She might have felt guilty about stepping out of the elevator in her filthy boots if much of the carpeting didn't already appear stained and, inexplicably, chewed in spots. The doors in this hall were stained wood, unlike the rusted metal of those she had encountered below. These did not have windows either. Most were locked or had doors which had rotted off their frames, but upon reaching the end of the hallway she was able to find one which was unlocked and undamaged. She opened and stepped through.

The room was beautiful and spacious. It followed a design scheme which was rounded out and shaped somewhat like an 'eight'. In the bottom loop where she stood, there were two extravagant couches which curved around a standing circular fireplace. The wall to her left was lined in a kitchenette while the right had a large television and some transceivers she didn't recognize. In the back was an enormous bed flanked by some shelves. She had a feeling she would be quite happy staying here.

Still, it was strange. This room seemed in near perfect condition compared to the disgusting rot of the others which shared this hall and by proxy, the same amount of wear. The lack of a private restroom was also odd, but stranger than either of these was what awaited the warlock atop the bed.

Athena strode with confidence to the bed and grabbed her bag off of the monstrous pile of pillows which anxiously awaited her tiring body, unzipping its three pouches and scattering its contents across the bed. Specifically, she hoped to find the reward which she had promised herself for surviving the long walk to the peak. As she rifled through her mess of unworn winter accessories and mismatched mechanical sprockets, Minerva materialized.

"Oh, there you are."

The ghost ignored her and began to summon the girl's belongings in a haphazard pile on the other side of the bed

"So you still don't want to talk to me, huh?"

Again the ghost ignored her.

"We're stuck together forever and you know you can't keep with this whole 'not answering me' thing."

"Silent treatment."

Athena wrinkled her eyebrow and laughed dryly, "Of course that's what you respond to."

It didn't take very long for the pair to complete their tasks. Minerva delivered the entirety of Athena's luggage and in the triumphant warlock's hand was a sample of her one and only vice: A granola ration with artificial chocolate. She feverishly tore off its wrapper and took a massive bite.

"Well," she said through a full mouth, "you're free to go. See you in a week."

"Longer than a week."

"'As long as it takes' right? You'll see. A week."

The ghost responded with a blank stare. The two shared their gaze for a moment before Minerva took the liberty of ending the conversation by dematerializing. This took Athena somewhat by surprise though she supposed it didn't much matter. If Minerva wanted to keep being upset then there was no point trying to change her mind. She chose instead to turn and sit on the edge of the bed and remove her boots.

She hoped against all hope that the fireplace was simply an elaborate electric setup seeing as it would be a hassle trying to find fuel and, if the drainage for the smoke was damaged or clogged, then she would end up smoking herself out of the room anyway. She was about to find out. Athena stood and crossed eagerly to the fireplace. It was, in fact, electric. A flip of a switch brought to life a holographic image of a roaring fire and a welcome surge of hot air. This was almost perfect. She wished only for a hot meal.

That would have to wait though. She returned to the bed and gathered her things into a neat pile, wrapping them in a scarf, and unceremoniously dropping them onto the carpet in a metallic 'clang'. She could get all of that in order the next morning. All that mattered was to take a rest for the moment.

The bed was plush and covered in three rather thick blankets which Athena happily burrowed her way into. At that moment, She could take the time to forget that she was stuck here until the vanguard deemed her ready and that she wasn't even sure of what 'ready' meant. They were thousands of miles away in the city, too far to be worthy of her concern. For the moment she could also forget about the things she still had left to do such as the hours of meditation she would no doubt have to endure as well as exploring the complex. The latter was far more tantalizing given her total lack of knowledge on the facility.

She closed her eyes, trying not to think too hard on such things. After all, she was quite tired and fading from consciousness quickly. This nap would be one for the records.


	2. Chapter 2

The current situation was nothing new. There was nothing at all unusual about Athena's being forced to sit and watch the guardians run back and forth between the plaza and the vanguard's chambers, far too hurried for their own good. There was nothing unusual about having to pretend, if only for her own sake, that she wasn't the topic of the argument going on beside her. It was also not unusual for her father to defend her latest bad actions far beyond what any other parent would deem acceptable.

"Listen, I am not trying to tell you that this is your fault. I know it's not. But please, you cannot continue to add her behavior up to," Ikora paused to check if the child was listening then lowered her voice, "well, to what happened to Helen."

Athena pretended not to notice the vanguard's comment.

"I'm not," he replied, "Children are meant to be rambunctious, are they not?"

"She shorted a comm tower during a vital operation. Hardly what I would call 'just a prank."

"Ah, but there were no casualties, were there?"

"That does not make this alright! Need I remind you of her other misadventures? Rewiring service bots- your own included- to harass the staff, booby trapping a discarded engram with an EMP, stealing sidearms off of careless hunters, the list goes on."

Athena's arms found themselves moving from her sides to cross over her chest. She was trying to show some semblance of restraint while her father was present. If he weren't, she was certain she'd have already laid hands on Ikora's ghost and begun to tamper with its directory functions.

"Perhaps she wouldn't be doing these things if you could get a better reign on her."

Fury made a momentary appearance in her eyes but she seemed to swallow it, balling her fist as an alternative to yelling.

"I am sorry, Shaxx, but my decision is final."

Athena contemplated ways of trying to insult the warlock but found that where words failed, only her technological know-how would suffice. Perhaps she would rig a fire alarm into the vanguard's war terminal.

"Please, you are the only one who can guide her. She's gifted! You've seen it yourself."

"Your daughter's potential is not the thing in question here. The truth is I simply cannot put up with her any longer. I promise you that the replacement I have chosen is every bit as competent as I am, if you'll only give him a chance."

The prospect of freeing herself from the vanguard's clutches was certainly appealing. Still, it was difficult to ignore the slight pangs of guilt she felt, knowing that she would continue to fall back on her father in these situations.

"This is an insult! Athena!"

She promptly stood and ran to her father's side, throwing her arms lovingly around his waist.

"What's up, papa? You done with the hag?"

The vanguard heaved a sigh and shook her head.

"Marcus has agreed to meet with her over the same hours I kept. He can instruct her or you can allow her to remain… feral. The choice is yours."

She refused to wait for a response, turning indignantly and walking off toward the vanguards' chamber.

"Don't think that this is over, Ikora!" He called after but she was happy to ignore him. She had made her point.

"Was it absolutely necessary for you to call her a hag?" Though he was clearly hoping to sound stern, it was difficult not to notice the slightest stifling of a laugh as the word left his lips.

"Sorry," she offered sheepishly and without a hint of remorse.

Shaxx ran a hand over her head, pushing her messy tangle of platinum blonde hair back from her eyes. The effect was only momentary as it crept its way down once more, now frizzing uncontrollably.

"What am I going to do with you, child?" He lifted her into his arms and moved to sit behind his desk, resting her onto his lap.

"Well, you know you could always let me stay here and help you with the crucible."

"You know why that can't happen."

"Because you don't trust me."

"Come now, little one, you don't believe that any more than I do."

Athena's wandering eyes came to rest on her father's console. A series of names and dogtags flanked live feed coverage of two fireteams locked in a bloody deathmatch. Kill tallies indicated that they were neck and neck. At the same moment a nova bomb vaporized a hapless titan, the warlock directing it was being tackled and brutally stabbed by a hunter. She found matches like this particularly enthralling.

"I just wish I could sit here with you all day and watch matches."

"As do I, but now is not the time. There is still much for you to learn. Perhaps someday when yo- Bravo is gaining. Would you like to do the honors?"

She gasped in excitement, "Can I?"

He nodded. Athena reached out and pushed a finger into the holographic keyboard projected beneath the screen and a sound byte of her father encouraging Alpha to keep fighting played over the speaker. She giggled joyfully and curled up tighter in her father's lap.

"I may have defended you earlier but that doesn't mean you and I won't be having a very serious conversation about your stunt with the comm tower. Do you understand me, young lady?" Shaxx settled into his chair and held his daughter close, turning his attention to the match.

"Yes sir."

She wondered to herself if he would be able to change Ikora's mind but figured it was unlikely. The vanguard had been lenient up until now- Cayde even found the girl charming- but it was clear that she had crossed a serious line. Perhaps, she considered, if she were to torment her new tutor enough, he might be inclined to release her back to her father.

It would be worth a try.


End file.
